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Cybera newsletter โ€” Fall 2021

Cyber Summit is just days away! The annual Cyber Summit will run November 8-10. The conference will kick-off with two half-day workshops: an immersive workshop from Softchoice and AWS on leading your educational institution through its cloud journey, followed by a look at how higher education is implementing Multi-Factor Authentication. This will be followed by […]

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Albertaโ€™s public shared procurement program surpasses $30M in savings as more security offerings added

Albertaโ€™s ShareIT public procurement program has passed the spend milestone of $50 million since it was implemented in 2017. This equates to a total estimated savings for its members of +$30 million (over their average education discount rate). This milestone comes as the program adds a variety of new firewall hardware, licensing, and services to

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Canadaโ€™s NREN bolsters security with MANRS

The partners in Canadaโ€™s National Research and Education Network (NREN) are pleased to announce today that Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security, or MANRS, has been implemented on the majority of Canadaโ€™s research and education networks. Ninety-nine per cent of organizations connected to the NREN are nowย connected to a MANRS-compliant network. An industry-led initiative championed

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SniffPass boosts US infrastructure cybersecurity

Last year, we wrote about a novel security tool that Cyberaโ€™s security team had made open source. The โ€œplaintext password sniffer,โ€ or SniffPass, was first developed by the University of Albertaโ€™s security team to detect and secure their institution against phishing attempts or insecure online passwords. Cyberaโ€™s security analyst made SniffPass available in Zeek, a

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New report takes a comprehensive look at Albertaโ€™s internet gaps and opportunities

After a year of researching, Cybera (Albertaโ€™s not-for-profit technology accelerator) has unveiled a comprehensive update to its State of Alberta Digital Infrastructure Report. This timely analysis comes as internet connectivity and access to high-speed broadband have taken on heightened levels of importance in the province, due to COVID-19. The updated report, first published in 2014,

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Industry Hackathon helps solve โ€œdigital divideโ€ while supporting professional development

On June 4, 2021, participants from across Alberta presented unique solutions and tactics to the issue of rural internet access gaps following the month-long Bridging the Connectivity Challenge Hackathon. This event, which was spearheaded by Cybera and ISAIC, brought together more than 100 registrants to address the following objectives: Use available data to assess the

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New website shines a light on Albertaโ€™s rural connectivity gaps

Responding to the ongoing struggles faced by rural Albertans to access high-speed, affordable internet, the Alberta Rural Connectivity Coalition has unveiled a new website to offer resources and learning events for those wanting to find local solutions. The website will allow communities and networking experts to collaborate on local projects to provide internet to residents,

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Second national procurement for web conference tool now available

Partners in the NREN award the second of two collaborative procurements to streamline web conferencing for Canadian higher ed and research institutions. Cybera, working with its National Research & Education Network (NREN) partners, is pleased to announce the second of two awards for a national web conferencing solution. This agreement with BlueJeans will see its

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Cybera doubles network capacity on SuperNet, just in time

When Albertaโ€™s K-12 schools resumed in-person classes last week, Cyberaโ€™s network team really noticed the difference! On Tuesday, May 25, the amount of traffic running over Cyberaโ€™s link to the SuperNet more than doubled, from an average of 8.75 Gbps (while at-home learning was going on), to just over 20 Gbps. Fortunately, Cybera had just

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How CRTC flip-flop on wholesale internet will hurt consumers

Last week, in a move that has already negatively impacted consumer internet costs in Canada, the CRTC reversed itโ€™s 2019 decision to lower the rates charged by large ISPs to wholesale service providers for access to their networks. Wholesale internet providers, such as TekSavvy and Distributel, will now have to pay the higher, pre-2019 rates

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ShareIT Year in Review

ShareIT capped off its 2020-21 fiscal year with one of the strongest quarters to date, generating savings of over $3 million between January and March 2021! It was also a record-setting year for the team in terms of catalogue additions and PD&T. The ShareIT program added seven new contracts and hosted 29 information and knowledge

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Advice for Alberta institutions looking to make use of a Shared CISO

For the last two years, Cybera has facilitated a Shared Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) program for its members. The origin of this program dates back to 2017, when Norquest College and Lakeland College teamed up to share a single CISO: security expert Curtis Blais, who remains the Shared CISO today.  Having a Shared CISO

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Registration for 2021 Data Science for Albertans Fellowships is now open!

Budding data scientists and industry partners have until June 13 to apply Cybera is happy to announce the return of the Data Science for Albertans Fellowship program. From July 19 – August 27, emerging data scientists (Fellows) will be paired with industry partners, including entrepreneurs, startups, or small to medium-sized companies who are interested in adopting data science

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